Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of product packaging, and more particularly to a modular corrugated container having integrated cushioning.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems come in a variety of sizes and weights. In response to market demands, portable information handling systems have shrunk in size and weight by squeezing smaller and more capable components into housings of decreased size. One difficulty that arises with lighter weight and thinner housings is that smaller accelerations can cause greater flexures, leading to breakage at the circuit board or other components in the housing. In particular, large sudden accelerations applied at a housing during shipping can result in bending of the housing if the edges of the housing have greater support than the middle of the housing.
Conventional packaging of an information handling system typically involves supports designed into corrugated cardboard material that fit a particular housing. Designing packaging to fit each information handling system product can involve long packaging development times, thus adding to product costs. System-specific packaging creates an inventory problem of matching system orders to packaging orders and storing system-specific packaging at manufacture locations in adequate but not excessive quantities. Although each information handling system may have a corrugated package designed to fit the system housing, the individual packaging designs tend to follow common guidelines that tend to result in greater amounts of corrugated material in each package design than may be needed. These guidelines may added additional materials to offset variations in packaging material qualities available in different regions. Excess packaging material has an undue environmental impact and creates a disposal problem for the customer. Excess packaging material also impacts logistics by increasing the amount of pallet space that each package consumes and the weight of each package. Since packages are often shipped by air, small incremental decreases in package size and weight may have a substantial combined impact when loaded into an aircraft.
Ultimately, packaging success for an information handling system or other product depends upon safe arrival of a package to a customer. Safe arrival depends upon adequate exterior strength to allow stacking of packages during shipping and adequate interior strength to keep the packaged product from harm in the event of excessive accelerations, such as dropping of the package. Increasing the amount of packaging material used to build the exterior of the packaging tends to increase stack strength but also increases the footprint of the package. Increasing internal packaging components can improve interior strength, but often result in foam and other cushioning materials added to the interior of the packaging. For example, foam cushion end-cap designs fit around the perimeter of an information handling system housing and are intended to protect the housing from side impacts and to cushion the housing during vertical accelerations. A typical end-cap design fits onto the corners of the information handling system housing to protect the central regions of the information handling system housing from impact; however, the lack of support in the central region of the housing can result in flexing under high accelerations that can damage internal circuit boards and components.